Absorbent folded hand towels made of fibrous cellulosic material are widely used to dry hands at commercial, institutional and public facilities. Such folded hand towels are designed for a single use to prevent the spread of pathogens. Since these towels are typically provided at no cost to the user, it is desirable to minimize their cost of use.
During each use or hand drying event, one or more hand folded towels are rubbed over the hands of a user to absorb water. The ability of an individual towel to absorb water (also called "water capacity") roughly correlates to the arrangement of fibers and total weight of absorbent fibrous cellulosic material in the towel (which is also a major component of the cost of such towels). It generally follows that increasing the water capacity of a towel also increases its weight and thus its cost.
One widely adopted approach to lowering the cost of using absorbent folded towels is to provide a towel having a "high capacity" and sufficiently large area so that only one towel would be needed for a typical hand drying event. In order to keep such towels from using too much fiber, the basis weight of such large format towels is often kept low. These towels may be made utilizing papermaking techniques or furnishes that provide sufficient strength at low basis weights to reduce or prevent the towel from tearing during dispensing. Alternatively, these towels may be configured so that two or more plies are folded to form a leading edge that has sufficient strength for reliable dispensing. Studies have shown that fewer of these "high capacity" towels are used in a hand drying event. Unfortunately, the greater weight of each "high capacity" towel means that the total weight of towel used during the hand drying event is relatively high. Exemplary high capacity towels have surface areas of 600 cm.sup.2 or more and basis weights of 45 gsm or more.
Another approach to lowering the cost of using absorbent folded paper towels is to provide inexpensive "very low capacity" towels. The basis weight of these "very low capacity" towels is kept low so that less fiber is used. Such low basis weight towels are also made utilizing papermaking techniques or furnishes that provide sufficient strength at low basis weights to reduce or prevent the towel from tearing during dispensing. The problem with this approach is that users typically perceive these towels as ineffective at hand drying and take more towels per use causing the total weight of towel used during the hand drying event to be relatively high. Exemplary very low capacity towels have surface areas of less than 600 cm.sup.2 and basis weights of 45 gsm or less.
Thus, there is a long and unfilled need for an absorbent towel that delivers the right amount of water capacity for users to dry their hands while minimizing the total weight of towel used during each hand drying event.
Meeting this need would have an important economic benefit by reducing the cost of hand towels to operators of commercial, institutional and public facilities. Meeting this need would also have an important environmental benefit by reducing the total weight of towel (i.e., fibrous cellulosic material) used during each hand drying event. That is, it is desirable to reduce the total weight of the folded towel that is used and the total weight of the folded towel that is discarded.